{Spotlight Project} Maria Spotlights Saving an Epic Fail Bokeh

Hi STAMPlorations peeps! In today's Spotlight post I'm going to share with you how I attempted a bokeh background but had to admit defeat. Here's today's card. One thing can be said for it - it packs a punch of color ;)

STEP 1

Gathered my supplies - stamp set,  dies, a piece of watercolor paper taped to cardboard, a cardbase and the culprits hiding in the rear - Dylusions spray inks.

STEP 2
Spritzed the watercolor paper.

STEP 3

Unscrewed the top and applied some red ink onto the wet paper just by tapping the sprayer. Then I used a wet paint brush to spread it around a little. In hindsight... should have started with my lightest color, especially since these colors are SOOOOO vibrant.

STEP 4

Tapped on some pink. And then some yellow. Used the brush to help me out a bit. Do you see what I see? Basically just LOTS of red!

STEP 5

Using circle dies, I cut myself a stencil from a page protector and proceeded to sponge some white ink through it. I started by using an old white pigment ink pad but since it was pretty dry, ended up pressing it directly to the stencil. Figured this was OK since I rarely use the pad anymore and it was the first layer on top of the ink. Which... in hindsight ...probably wasn't totally dry...

 STEP 6

After three large circles, I moved on to smaller sized circles with my Hero Arts white pigment pad and a sponge dauber. Looks kinda like bokeh so far, right?

STEP 7

To add a bit more interest to the BG I made a stencil of the butterfly die and applied white ink through it. Still looking bokeh-y. Notice my ink pad getting pink...

STEP 8

Thinking things were moving right along, I left my circle and butterfly-inked BG to dry and moved on to my finishing embellishments. Die cut a butterfly from two layers of recycled tissue paper and stamped onto one layer. Stitched the two together with the plain layer on top.

STEP 9

Hit the BG one more time with some more butterflies and a few white dots made with my finger dauber...

STEP 10

... and after heat drying it on and off about ten times - it seemed every time I came back to look at it there was some moisture seeping out of one of the areas - I admitted defeat. Bokeh adieu! Ran it through my Big Shot with scrap paper on top to protect my plates. Thank goodness. That's the scrap on the right. It picked up SOOOOO much ink even though I thought the panel was dry!

To add a bit more interest since the bokeh wasn't bokeh anymore, I stamped some graphic images with black ink and added the embellishments and heat embossed sentiment.

Remember if you try out any of the techniques, like bokeh stamping, from our Spotlight posts hook up your project at our Spotlight Project Showcase.  I'd love to hear about your experience with doing bokeh on Dylusions spray inks! Not sure if they were the problem, or my not waiting for things to dry thoroughly...
And you can pick up any of the supplies I used at 10% off in the store - an additional 20% if you use my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code ;)

Trendy Spring Blooms die, Fluttery and Fluttery die